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Junior Knights win BAA title

All in all, Monday was a good day for the Kincardine District Secondary School basketball program.

Marley Martyn defends earlier this season at KDSS. Martyn and the senior Knights were defeated in the BAA championship game Monday evening, but still qualified for tomorrow's CWOSSA tournament in Waterford. (Independent file photo/Josh Howald)

The junior Knights won a Bluewater Athletic Association championship Monday afternoon in Wiarton, while their senior counterparts sealed a berth at this week’s CWOSSA championship tournament in Waterford.

The juniors crushed the OSCVI Falcons in the BAA final 33-14 to win a second straight BAA championship. They finished the season with a 7-1 record and then beat Saugeen District Secondary School in a quarter-final playoff game to qualify for Monday’s Final Four tournament at Peninsula Shores District School. KDSS had little trouble with St. Mary’s High School of Owen Sound in the semi-final Monday morning, cruising to a 33-8 win.

The juniors had already qualified for this week’s CWOSSA tournament - but don’t mind going to Waterford with a winning streak.

The senior girls, meanwhile, were dumped in the BAA championship game by the host PSDS Phoenix.

Kincardine had completed an undefeated season and had knocked off the SDSS Royals in an elimination to move into Monday’s tournament with confidence. KDSS was fully prepared for the OSCVI Falcons in a semi-final match-up with their season on the line. That semi-final game not only decided who would play for a BAA championship, but also as a CWOSSA qualifying game.

“Ultimately, a trip to OFSAA is the goal we set for ourselves at the start of the season,” said coach Vince Yenssen last week.

He was running two-a-day practices for his team last week in order to prepare for the semi-final, and had scouts at OSCVI’s elimination quarter-final win over SMHS. He said the key to defeating OSCVI was to clog up the paint and push for turnovers.

Everything went according to plan against the Falcons, as Kincardine secured a trip to Waterford, and the BAA finals, with a 54-36 win.

However, everything came crashing down in the BAA final as the Knights were crushed 55-26 by the Phoenix. Kincardine and PSDS had split games early in the season in a pair of tournaments, but did not meet in the regular season. Like the Knights, the Phoenix had an undefeated regular season.

Kincardine will regroup for tomorrow, and join the junior Knights at the CWOSSA tournament in Waterford. Both the junior and senior Knights will play two games tomorrow (Thursday) and possibly move on to the finals on Friday.

There are similarities to last season for the seniors. Last year, KDSS went undefeated throughout the regular season, but was then knocked off in the BAA semi-finals. They won a CWOSSA qualifying game, and ended up winning the CWOSSA championship and advancing to the OFSAA provincial championship tournament. That’s still the goal for KDSS.

They will seek a CWOSSA title without the services of Alice Thorpe. Thorpe is done for the season after suffering a concussion. Thorpe was a force off the bench, and her rebounding will be missed. Luckily, the Knights are deep enough that her absence won’t sink them.

"(Bethany) Wilken can shoot the lights out, Marley (Martyn) plays fantastic D - one of the best transition players I have seen and we have our bigs, like Rainor (Kuz). We can beat teams in a lot of different ways - with threes, sometimes in transition and sometimes with our bigs - it's what I really like about our team," said Yenssen.

Tonight (Wednesday), the junior and senior girls will be serving at Boston Pizza from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. A portion of all the sales during that three-hour span will go towards the KDSS girls basketball program. The money will be used to help offset the trip to CWOSSA for the juniors, and hopefully the seniors, and ideally, the OFSAA tournament as well.

VOLLEYBALL

The Saugeen District Secondary School Royals won a BAA senior boys volleyball title Thursday afternoon at home in Port Elgin.

The Royals needed five games to knock off Sacred Heart 3-2 in an entertaining championship game that featured the two top teams from the BAA South Division. SDSS and SHHS knocked out St. Mary's and West hill, respectively, in semi-final games.

Kincardine was eliminated in the first match of the day Thursday. The Knights were swept 3-0 by the Crusaders 25-20, 25-13, 25-21.

The KDSS junior boys volleyball team suffered a similar fate to their senior counterparts. They, too, were swept by SHHS in a quarter-final contest. The season ended early Thursday by scores of 25-12, 25-14 and 25-23.

The Crusaders went on to win the BAA junior crown with a narrow 3-2 win over the Walkerton District Community School Riverhawks.